Sustainable series of epoxidized sunflower oil via in situ peracid mechanism as an intermediate product

Abstract Epoxides are conventionally synthesized from petroleum‐based resources, which are neither environmentally friendly nor sustainable. Sunflower oil (SO), a renewable feedstock, remains underutilized and is often considered low value. This study aims to optimize the reaction parameters for SO epoxidation via an in situ peracid mechanism, where formic acid reacts with hydrogen peroxide to form performic acid, which then epoxidizes SO in the presence of catalysts. The relative conversion to oxirane (RCO) was used to evaluate efficiency. Three catalysts were tested: sulfuric acid, amberlite IR 120, and zeolite. Kinetic modeling was conducted using the ODE45 solver based on the Runge Kutta method, showing good agreement with experimental data. Optimum catalyst loadings were 1.0 g sulfuric acid (45% RCO), 2.0 g amberlite IR 120 (75% RCO), and 1.0 g zeolite (44% RCO). The findings confirm the potential of SO as a sustainable alternative feedstock for producing bio‐based epoxides.